“It is very clear that the Turnbull Government’s ABCC is not about productivity or industry reform. The ABCC is merely a taxpayer funded vehicle for the Liberal Party’s culture war against unions.

“There are real problems that require the PM’s attention, like stagnating wage growth and casualisation of the workforce.

“Yet they have gone out of their way to make a specific set of rules for one flag – a flag that represents a struggle for democracy and fairness.

“Under these rules, it would be permissible to display the flag of North Korea, an ISIS flag, or a swastika - but not the Eureka Flag.”

The changes also include making the display of a single union logo on equipment on a construction site a breach of code. Union logos were permissible under the previous rules unless they were ‘voluminous or large scale’. This would mean, for example, that a union sticker on a hard hat would be a breach of the Code.

“At the same time they try to criminalise journalism, they are making rules about putting stickers on hard hats and flying the Eureka Flag.

“It’s behaviour you would expect under a dictatorship,” Dave Noonan said.